Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Charging and care of your cell phone battery

From my local cell phone provider: Recharge the battery every night whether it needs it or not. Batteries only have so many "lives" to live before they die. One life means running a battery nearly out before recharging it. It only takes a few times before the life of the battery ends and you then turn over $35 or $40 for a new battery.

Extend the life of your battery by charging it nightly and if you are going to be on your cell for an extended period of time, plug it in if possible. He also told me that unlike batteries of years past charging them nightly does not wear them down but now prevents that from happening.

He also reminded me to use my car charger as little as possible if at all. Car chargers are hard on batteries and wear them down quickly.

Also stay away from the converters that convert a car charger to an outlet charger. That is the fastest way to give your poor cell phone battery a heart attack and insure its immediate death.

Yes this information is brought to you by personal experience. I was in a small town for a show and left my outlet charger at home. Not wanting to spend 2 hours in the car to charge the phone, I headed to the nearest nationally known electronic store since I thought they would carry high grade products. Well those thoughts blew away right along with all the tumbleweed in town when the wind stirred. This particluar converter allows you to plug a car charger into the base and then into an outlet. Only the directions don't warn you about sudden death caused by electrical shock. Stay away from those converters. Purchasing a new battery is how I learned about the charging tips!

Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Keep the environment green and clean

When I lived in the Midwest it was customary to carry a bag of sand in the car for those times when we took corners a bit too fast on snowy roads and found ourselves in a snow bank. Poured under the tires, sand gave me enough traction to get me back on the road again.

Since travels now take me over the mountain during winter months. Carrying sand or kitty litter is not all that appealing since I've taken a strong stance of treading as lightly as possible on Mother Earth. Instead, explore the idea of using wild bird seed. It's natural and the birds will appreciate your thoughtfullness.

*Note: Lindsey very kindly wrote to let me know that the birds would not eat all the seed. The following spring the seeds would sprout with the potential of introducing foreign grasses, which would disturb the eco system and that sand is far better to use. Thank you Lindsey for emailing. I should have been aware of this problem since I live in Oregon where Scotch Broom was introduced many years ago. It has destroyed so much of our natural habitate.

In addition, head to the hardware store or a capet company and purchase a large size carpet sample. They generally run around $2. Place that in a plastic bag. It doesn't take up much room on the floor of your backseat or trunk of your car. If you need to stop and put chains on your car, the carpet sample will keep your legs dry. Tuck it inside the plastic bag when you finish so it won't soil your car.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Mary Findley's Top Three Rules for Speed Cleaning

1) Buy the best equipment you can afford. Men, when you go to buy tools do you head to the local dollar store for your tools or do you go to Sears for Craftsmen and then a good quality hardware store for DeWalts, Makitas and Snap On?


Head out to the garage ladies and take a look at the tools on your husbands workbench. The majority of people do not use these tools every week let alone every day. The majority use them maybe once or perhaps twice a month and some even less than that. Even if they use them twice a year they still buy the best on the market. Why? Because men especially know high quality tools do the job, they do it right the first time and they don't brake in the middle of the job - exceptions noted.

So why are you using poor quality tools to clean your home, car, Rv etc when you use them daily if not more often than that? Look at your broom closet. How many mops have you thrown away in the last year because they just didn't work and you gave up. How many bottles of cleaners do you have hidden on the back shelf because the ad on TV made it look so wonderful and you found out it would be wonderful if it would even clean a smudge let alone real dirt.

Good quality tools cut your cleaning time down to a third of the time. They last for years not weeks and when you finish, the surface is actually clean and it sparkles. You will save hundreds of dollars a year just by buying top quality tools.

2) Give your product time to work. It takes time for a product to dissolve some grease and grime. Spray your cleaner on the surface then wait 5 to 15 minutes depending on the dirt and your cleaner. For those of you using my new cleaners 1 to 2 minutes is more than enough time.

3) Prevention, prevention, prevention. Wipe down surfaces regularly even those that don't get that dirty like window blinds. Done monthly cleaning window blinds is a five minute job. Put it off - well cancel all plans for the afternoon. This holds true for any household cleaning job.


This article may only be rewritten giving full credit to Mary Findley with Mary Moppins www.goclean.com. World wide rights reserved.


Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Removing Wax from Carpets

Cleaning wax from carpets takes time and dilligence yet can be avoided with a few easy precautions:
1) Don't move a lit candle or one that has just been extinquished
2) Leaving a lit candle burning near any kind of flamable material will cause a fire. They do not belong on window sills, near lamps or walls or on top of covered tables.
3) Always place a holder under all candles whether or not they are in glass containers.

Remove candle wax safely from carpet:
1) Freeze the wax with ice cubes placed in a zip loc bag
2) Chip off what you can with a blunt knife
3) Grab an all white paper towel and a hair dryer
a) most cleaning experts recommend an iron. Use an iron only if you like brown scorch marks in your carpet.
4) Begin heating the the wax with the dryer set on medium to high heat.
5) Blot the wax as it melts with the paper towel.
6) If you insist on burning red candles please don't email me asking me how to remove the red dye from the carpet. Heat sets a stain and that red dye is permanently heated into your carpet. If you burn red candles put them up where little ones and guests can't move them.

This article may only be used giving full credit to Mary Findley, owner of Mary Moppins and using her website www.goclean.com

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Cleaning Lace Tablecloths
As lace tablecloths and runners age, they often darken. Returning them to white again can pose problems. Regular chlorine bleach usually makes matters worse. Instead, fill a sink with lukewarm water adding 1 to 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide - make sure the bottle is fresh. Peroxide does loose its "umph" after a few months - adding a tablespoon of borax. Soak for 30 minutes, rinse thoroughly and dry on heavy towels.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

A book that keeps on Giving

“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cleaning” http://www.goclean.com/bookclean.htm coauthored by Mary Findley. This is one gift that will keep giving for years to come just as our mops and other products continue to do. We gladly ship all our products direct to their recipient and even tuck in a gift card as well!

Cleaning for unexpected guests
So this is the busiest time of year. Your best friend calls after just arriving in town and wants to come by for an unexpected quick visit and will be there in an hour. Your home is still disgruntled from putting up all the decorations and you are elbow deep in cookie dough. Where do you start?
If you have a laundry basket (a large plastic bag or box will work just fine) start at the front door and make a quick swoop through each room where you will probably be entertaining. Starting at the front door enables you to see what they will see when walking in the door. Time? 10 minutes.

With the larger items out of the way, tuck excess magazines etc into a spare bedroom or closet picking up books or shoes along with them. Don’t use the hall closet since you hang coats there! Time? 8 minutes.

Clean fast with environmentally safe cleaners

Next grab our Benya, it cleans and shines most hard surfaces except wood. Give the kitchen counters and guest bathroom a quick once over. If your microwave needs cleaning tuck a coffee cup half full of water inside and heat it up for 2 minutes then squirt a bit of CleanEz inside and quickly wipe it out. Time? 12 minutes. – How do I know these times? Experience J
Benya is one of very few glass cleaners that will not smear or streak. It removes grease and fingerprints from black refrigerators and appliances and leaves a wonderful shine on counter tops.

You will love using Clean Eze for hundreds of cleaning chores. It’s a wonderful stain remover for carpet and clothing doing an awesome job cleaning awnings and even removes black streaks off RVs and motorhomes. It is the best I’ve ever used as an all purpose cleaner and the best part is highly concentrated.

Run the vacuum if needed only on traffic areas and grab a cotton dust cloth wiping over only the visible areas using our Wood Care diluted. Time? 15 minutes.

That leaves you 15 minutes to put on a pot of water for hot tea and scatter a few holiday decorating books on a dining room table, opened in hopes of them being a good distraction. When the door bell rings you are ready to share new ideas you have for holiday decorating over a cup of warm tea and the magazines.

Cleaning showers and soap scum

Ah but they might stay over for the night and the shower needs a quick clean. Our brand new TerraPlus removes soap scum and hard water spots in under two minutes with little or no scrubbing and even removes oil from driveways or garage floors. TerraPlus is the only product I’ve ever used that doesn’t back down from the really tough cleaning jobs. It’s fast, effective yet environmentally safe just like Benya and CleanEz.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season!